City Council Minutes 11.28.16Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright we have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. McDonald. Any further discussion?
Resolution #2016-84: Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded
that the City Council orders the preparation of plans and specifications for the 2017 Street
Rehabilitation Project No. 17-01. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously
with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much Mr. Oehme. Look forward to seeing you in
January. That doesn’t mean you have the rest of the month off by the way. Okay. Alright.
AVIENDA CONCEPT PLAN REVIEW.
Mayor Laufenburger: Staff report. Is this your’s Ms. Aanenson?
Kate Aanenson: Yes it is Mayor, thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you.
st
Kate Aanenson: This application did appear before the Planning Commission on November 1.
I did include in your packet a summary of the minutes that, there were a number of residents that
spoke at that meeting and kind of just I think a lot of it is the process itself. Explaining how that
all comes to fruition but just concerns about what exactly the uses are going to be. The
connections. Walkability. Wetlands. Connections. What types of uses. That sort of thing.
Noise and light pollution, a lot of those things which will be also assessed during the AUAR
which we’ll go into a little bit more detail in a minute. So the subject site is located at the corner
of, southwest corner of Lyman Boulevard and Powers and it will get the access off of 212. In the
original environmental document this has to be a connection. How that connection works will be
determined by the application itself in conjunction with the environmental document that moves
forward. A little bit of history on this project. This project did come before the Planning
Commission and the City Council last year. At that time only 7 acres were included in the
project.
Mayor Laufenburger: How many?
Kate Aanenson: 70. Now there’s 118 acres included in the project. Some of the concerns with
just the 70 acres is how did the road, how would the road connection work. How would we
balance the two sites and in addition how would the mix of uses be put together so it was always
the goal of the City to have it come in as one parcel and that’s what we have today. In addition
the council did order the environmental document. That was never executed by the applicant and
18
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
never proceeded. So again to clarify, oh I have a floating little square there. This piece is
actually up in this corner here so it’s 117 acres and I’ve identified the land uses. I want to clarify
again when this property was guided in 2008 we actually changed the land use designation. It’s
guided for, it’s currently zoned residential but we dual guided it which is a unique attribute that
we’ve done on a few other properties. So when we gave it the commercial there were certain
expectations and I’ll go through those in a little bit more detail but there was 2 potential uses
that, for your consideration. That would be office or the commercial and with the commercial
we created a PUD regional commercial zoning district and again I’ll go through that in a little bit
more detail too. So again the land use designation is the regional commercial or office and is
currently zoned low density residential so the uses that would be consistent with the
Comprehensive Plan, what they have to do to go for development would either be the regional
commercial or the office.
Mayor Laufenburger: Just a second Ms. Aanenson. The zoning on the property is today.
Kate Aanenson: Agricultural.
Mayor Laufenburger: Agriculture, okay thank you.
Kate Aanenson: The land use, when the original AUAR came through was low density and I’ll
speak to that, how that ties into this whole project. So to, in order to get the regional commercial
we put it into a PUD district so it would be more prescriptive. We could call out certain uses and
other attributes that we wanted to see with that project. So again for the review of this process I
think this is, some of the concern that the residents have is the input on this. It seemed like it’s
moving pretty fast and the developer’s perspective it’s probably moving too slow so the concept
review that is before you tonight is to gather information. It’s non-binding on either parties but
in good faith we’re moving down a path to say here’s our expectation so the things that were
brought forward to you were comments given by the residents and the Planning Commission and
the staff so our recommendation in the staff report also includes comments in the staff report and
I’m not going to go through those. A lot of detail. Just an overview. They’re similar to the ones
we had last time but so the concept PUD which you’re given tonight is to give them direction not
only on the uses but some of the kind of the framework issues that you’d like to see. I think the
architecture, what we’ve seen on that and they’ll be sharing with you high quality which is
certainly their expectation, our expectation. I think there’s just some other framework issues that
we might want to give a little bit more direction on. So as part of the update of the AUAR there
is also a public hearing with that so another opportunity for residents to get engaged. To
understand the traffic which certainly was a big issue. Walkability. Safety of the surrounding
neighborhoods so that will also be addressed in that. After the AUAR process and that is gone
through and approved there will be a development stage with a preliminary plat. That also
requires a public hearing before the Planning Commission and would come before the City
Council. As a part of that phase you’ll be looking at the grading. The layout. The specific
details of all the civil plans. Sewer, water, sidewalks, street location so that again just kind of
tightening down on those framework issues. And then you would approve the final plat and
19
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
there would be security placed in that and there might be a phasing plan with that also. And in
addition any development that would come in on this project would go through site plan review
so whatever buildings would come in they would also require a public hearing and, before the
Planning Commission and your approval so there’s a lot of opportunities for review and
comment. So I put this in here just so I’m not going to spend a lot of time reading it but I just,
you know why we put the PUD together and what was our intent and as the City Attorney’s
always advised us the most important of the city ordinance is your intent. So what we put in here
is that with the approval of the concept we’re not binding on either party. This is the PUD to say
that you know what we want to do is make sure that we have a clear understanding. If the
developer is going to go forward, what your intention is so our goals are aligned. And so we’re
being most efficient in everybody’s time and resources so again if you have specific direction or
issues it’s good to point them out now. With the application of the PUD again in our intent
statement is that when we put together the PUD and looked at the regional commercial, and this
ties back into the McCombs study that was done a couple years ago and they looked at how
much commercial could be put into the site and what those, what the square footages could be
for commercial development. Again it was a significant amount. You know 800,000 to 100 and
almost one million. Excuse me one million two hundred thousand so 800,000 to 1,200,000
square feet of regional commercial so what the intent way back when we originally looked at
this, when we changed the land use was to say this would be more of a regional draw as opposed
to what we consider the downtown which is more kind of the daily uses so we tried to separate
those and we talked about that when we had our visioning last April with all the different
commissions. Kind of talking about that. That this would be, this would compliment the
existing uses in downtown and obviously there’s a lot of different ways that happens. Different
interpretations of that but what we were looking at there is that you’d kind of be more of a
regional draw. So looking at some of the uses that would go in there. How would they be more
regional than some of the other uses that may be in the downtown that would be maybe the daily
need types of things such as banking. Those sort of things. So looking at that was one of the
goals that we put into the PUD is looking at some complimentary but not, things that we don’t
already have in the downtown or in the city itself. So again we broke those into goods and
services, entertainment, department stores, comparison shopping, restaurants, specialty, retail,
hotels, residential. One of the concerns that the residents brought out with the residential, there
was some higher densities and there’s ways to accomplish that with density transfers and looking
at that but again when we look at the uses itself we want to evaluate that in more detail as we
move forward but we certainly think that residential provides a good transition zoning and a
buffer zoning in some locations where there’s existing residential. Again in our RC district
under the intent, as I stated earlier we did say that we wanted to see 2 major retail anchors and a
mix of retail uses. So one of the comments we got from some of the neighbors were concerns
that maybe there wasn’t enough retail. Maybe it wouldn’t be a regional draw so there’s some,
again that’s something I think we’re both trying to understand. Both parties, the City and the
developer trying to understand what that mix is. So here is the developer’s proposal. Again it’s
not the detail. Concept doesn’t require that level of specificity. What we’re trying to do here is
get the square footage. Is that approximate and then based on that we will do the analysis for all
the environmental documents. It doesn’t show grading. It doesn’t show the level of detail for
20
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
landscaping. That sort of thing. The one thing it does show is that the, some of the wetlands in
the middle would be removed with this plan. I think that was a concern and that’s a process that
we’ll have to go through as part of the environmental documents itself. So again to clarify where
we looked at for building square footage, we’re within that range of what the McCombs study
said in 2014 for the amount of retail space. Again that also includes some of the office space and
we know there’s obviously a symbiotic relationship when you have daytime users and there’s
commercial so I think that’s a healthy mix. I think some residents were concerned about the
apartments, townhouses and some of the hotels. Well we also always felt that that was a good
mix. When you have a hotel in town that’s able to benefit from some of the other uses that are in
there so we think the mix is important. It’s what that right amount is and how that all works
which as we move along we’ll learn a little bit more detail of. Again.
Mayor Laufenburger: Kate is this document that we’re looking at right now on the screen, is this
a City document or is this from Avienda?
Kate Aanenson: That’s from Avienda.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you.
Kate Aanenson: We did create the summary of uses because it was a little difficult to understand
how many units were in there based on the way they displayed it. They just showed it in a little
bit different, so we added up the retail so the actual retail is under 400,000. If you add the
restaurant office in so they’ve broken it, we’ve broken it down a little differently. So if you look
at what the original anticipating more retail so that’s a question. You know is that, does that
make it regional? Does it not make it regional? But again we always anticipated the mix and I
think there was some concern that we talked about at the Planning Commission, it’s similar to
what we did on Villages on the Ponds. You know we had institutional use, that was the driver
there. And then we also had a healthy mix. We have Presbyterian Homes, the residential there
and then some other support commercial and that too has evolved over time as we looked at that.
We did clarify at the Planning Commission when we do the traffic study and kind of come up
with some thresholds, things change over time and so some, in some of this we need to build in
flexibility of what uses come and go. They’re not all going to be the same today as they will be
in 10 years from now so as a part of that PUD, building in kind of that menu of choices of things
to come and go. Again tying that back to what the 2014 study said. This is from the McCombs
study for retail. Breaking those down. Again and this one didn’t have the office amount that
they’re putting in. Kind of the, along the northern edge which is a good buffer. Office. It’s just
how that entire mix works. So again the wetland in the center of the project is one of the areas
that certainly is of importance to them to work on the relocation of that wetland. That’s going to
be part of the AUAR. I know that was some concern to some of the residents. There’s some
other framework issues that we talked about and that’s connecting some of the streets was some
concerns but we believe we can connect those and make those safe for both. The school district
did comment on those regarding if we have residential there that there’s good access for buses
and the like so I didn’t go through all the comments in there but certainly we’re confident with
21
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
the environmental document that we’ll be addressing those in a much deeper level to address the
concerns that were raised by the residents. I believe that’s the only thing I had to add. Again
there’s a lot more detail in the, regarding water resource comments and the like but I also wanted
to add, you did have the verbatim minutes from the Planning Commission also included in this
packet and there’s great comments from the residents regarding noise and light pollution and all
those things will be studied in the environmental document. It’s part of the challenge when you
do a mixed use project and you have existing residential but we’re confident we can address all
those with the project itself so that’s all I had. I know the applicant, we are just looking for your
feedback and move that along but I know the applicant would like to make a presentation also.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright before I ask the applicant to come forward I’m just going to ask
council. Council do you have any questions of staff at this time? Anything you’d like to ask.
Kate when you talk about the environmental document, you’re talking about the AUAR, is that
correct?
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: It’s a component of the AUAR. The AUAR includes environment, traffic,
a number of different elements.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: But your use of the word environmental documents specifically addresses
the AUAR.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Let’s see, okay. I know the applicant is with us tonight. If you
would like to speak to the council we’d love to have you here. Just ask that you state your name
and address please for the record.
Bahram Akradi: I’m Bahram Akradi, 4300 Oak Road, Minnetrista.
Mayor Laufenburger: Welcome Mr. Akradi. Nice to have you here this evening.
Bahram Akradi: Thank you. First I want to thank you Mayor and the council for hearing us
today and I also want to thank you guys for being such a great home for me and Life Time for so
many years. However this, as you guys know this project has nothing to do with Life Time so
my goal today is to give you guys a little bit of history on how I actually got involved with this.
Give you guys a little background on the vision I have for this and how I’d like to proceed with
the City in partnership to move forward with this thing and then introduce the team. Let them
you know kind of talk to you and then this is going to be work in progress as we move forward.
Okay so.
22
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Let’s just, Darren do you have some slides that you want to show?
Kate Aanenson: Yep.
Darren Lazan: Working on it right now.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay let’s just wait until they get that up and running.
Kate Aanenson: Sorry we lost the, there we go.
Mayor Laufenburger: There you go. Mr. Akradi.
Bahram Akradi: Alright. So as you guys know this project was brought to you by different
groups, Scott Carlson a year or 2 years back.
Mayor Laufenburger: March of 2015.
Bahram Akradi: 2015 and he had along the way mentioned to me about this project and see if I
wanted to, if I had an interest to be an investor and with all the different things that was going on
with me and Life Time busy until we finished our transaction with Life Time and then quickly it
got to the point where there was kind of a timeline to make, to take an action on buying the land
from the people he had it under contract so I wanted to step in but I wanted to step in not as an
investor but as somebody who takes over and do it you know in my style. And so what we
looked at was to take over the 79 or 70-79 acre parcel that goes around but as Kate mentioned
when I looked at that and looked at the whole development it just didn’t seem like it was a
workable deal. The 2 pieces of land as Kate mentioned really, the land wants to be developed as
one whole piece. Not as 2 separate pieces. It would be just too difficult for 2 different
developers to try to come together to do that so I had to reach to the folks who had the other
parcel, the 40 acres. LCR and we met and we worked. It took several months to work together
to try to put this thing together as one development. I have a company by name Arius
Development. Roasted Development. I have a partner in that. Arius is the managing partner
and then LCR came in as a limited partner and we basically have created this entity to kind of
take on this project and move forward.
Mayor Laufenburger: So Mr. Akradi, in March of 2015 the council was presented with a,
essentially a concept that included only 80 acres.
Bahram Akradi: Right.
Mayor Laufenburger: And now you’re saying this concept includes all 120 acres.
Bahram Akradi: All yeah.
23
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Though the ownership of that property isn’t important to us, the
development through Arius through Level 7 is one developer.
Bahram Akradi: One developer and one thought. One whole project. So it took some time.
Obviously you know 2 different developers have different ideas of how they want to develop that
thing and what their expectation is of the economics so it just took some time to make sure that
piece works before I could move the project forward to the next phase so we did that. And then
beyond that what I really want to point out to you guys is today we at Life Time I have
developed about 14-15 million square feet of real estate over the last 20 some years so we have
been in the process, constantly we’ve been in the process of buying land. Developing. Going to
cities. Albeit I’m extremely rusty so I apologize. I think it’s been probably 15 or 20 years since
the last time I’ve been to a City Council meeting myself but I’m really.
Mayor Laufenburger: You’re doing good so far.
Bahram Akradi: Huh?
Mayor Laufenburger: You’re doing okay so far.
Bahram Akradi: I’m really looking forward to this project. Personally my vision is to build
something beautiful. Timeless and something that I can be proud of as a development and I want
to do this purely 100 percent as I mentioned to Kate, to Todd, to you Mayor as a partnership with
the City. I have no interest in pursuing the project in anything other than that so our goal is to
put together a whole thought. Bring it to you. Make it something that works for everybody. Of
course that’s the challenge to create a win, win, win for the neighbors, for the community, for the
City, for it’s objective and for the development. To make sure it all comes together so the, on the
big picture besides building something great, grand and you know timeless we need to build
mixed use. As I am dealing with real estate across the nation right now, I am in the process of
developing healthy living, healthy aging, healthy entertainment complexes across the whole
country with all the major reads. Converting some of the big, big regional malls into these
healthy living, healthy aging complexes. As they are having trouble with the big anchors like
Sears and JC Penny’s and Macy’s that they have too much retail so with the transition in the way
people are moving, shopping, and buying things online. Going to the places. The old style of
retail is not working. I have no interest in developing 120 acres or whatever is developable, 80-
90 acres of land strictly as retail. Strictly as office. Strictly as, none of that will really work.
There is too much of any one thing in that space so it needs to be a really well thought through
mixed use development. It also needs to be regional. It’s a big site. It’s the gateway of
Chanhassen. I think it needs to be a complimentary element, as Kate said again to downtown but
it also needs to be something that adds all sorts of components and benefits to the City. So we’re
fully excited to be a part of it. We’re excited to work with you on this. Listen to what you guys
have to say. What the City wants. I’ve asked the team, my demands is basically first class every
which way from everything we do. Beautiful and that’s really what we’re working on. So I
24
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
want to talk to you about the team a little bit. So the project is so big and it needs so much day to
day, so much day to day work that there is no way that I can be the day to day project
management, development person for that so right before this last few months I had Mark Zappe
who used to be the head of real estate for me before and he retired, take over but then last few
months he had some personal injuries. He had to work on that so we have replaced Mark
Zappe’s responsibilities with Mark Norland and his partners from Launch Properties. They have
exceptional experience with development over the last 20 plus years so they’re a great team to
work on day to day, seeing the project through. The brokerage is Tom Palmquist from Collier.
The architecture is RSP. Jeff Hysjulien is one of the partners there and he basically was with
them, worked with me for many years and then because of his wife moved to North Dakota and
came back and we just wanted to make sure find a way to work together. He’s back. We spend
a lot of time working on Life Time projects or Avienda project together and then the engineering
firm is Darren Lazan and he’s worked with us many, many years so I know the whole team.
Everybody’s capable and I’m going to turn it over to them unless you guys have any questions
for me.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright just a moment. Any council, any questions for Mr. Akradi?
Bahram Akradi: No?
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much.
Bahram Akradi: Okay, thank you so much.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay thank you.
Jeff Hysjulien: Thank you for having us here this evening. It’s very exciting to be back in front
of you to be able to share more of the vision and the design inspiration that’s involved with this
project. As Bahram had mentioned there’s been a lot of people that have taken a look at the
opportunities on this site and we’re very excited to be a part of watch and go to the next level for
the design and enhancement of this property.
Mayor Laufenburger: Could you just remind us of your name Jeff.
Jeff Hysjulien: I’m Jeff Hysjulien with RSP Architects and Bahram did a great bio on me, thank
you very much.
Mayor Laufenburger: Welcome back. What did you like about North Dakota.
Jeff Hysjulien: Opportunity of timing. It was a very unique window of time.
Mayor Laufenburger: Nice to have you back.
25
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Jeff Hysjulien: Yes thank you very much. As we’ll be showing here on the prompter we have
really taken a broad general idea, what is the character and the design essence that really wants to
be what Avienda will become. We know the importance and the significance of the property.
The location. The gateway aspect of how this is the front door for many people arriving to the
community and be able to set the right tone. I think Bahram had mentioned timeless and
sustainability as two key mantras that we will always look back both when it comes down to
design but also from leasing and making sure that the tenant mix is right for the property. Let’s
see if we can kind of go back one more here. And again what we wanted to talk about here is
kind of what is the spirit. What is the character? These buildings will be designed as they come
online. We do know there will be multiple checkpoints as the project moves forward so we will
be able to engage both planning and City Council as this project moves forward but some of the
key elements we really want to talk about is this is a pedestrian friendly development. It’s going
to fit into the neighborhood. It’s going to have connections within the Chanhassen community
and that’s a very key piece. I think Bahram also mentioned the notion of the healthy way of life
village. This is going to be something that ties in both young and old in a diversity of mixes and
that’s one of the key aspects for this. And as we all know exceptional quality. Both to the
materials that it’s built from but also when it gets down to the right ingredients to make sure that
this has more than the sum of all of the parts and we’re very excited to move this forward. We
have some character images of what this could possibly look like in the future. This is what we
call our signature gateway entry. We pay special attention to making sure the quality level, both
of the landscaping, the foreground, the materials and what you see as you arrive to this property.
Mayor Laufenburger: Jeff just for a moment. Just for those people who are watching at home or
in the council, what we’re seeing now this is the entry from Powers Boulevard, is that correct?
Jeff Hysjulien: Exactly.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Jeff Hysjulien: This is, we were in a helicopter looking back on the intersection. This is the
character of what you would be able to see really to try and show that there’s a depth of this
arrival sequence. There’s some functional aspects. We talk about traffic controls all of which
will be reviewed in the AUAR that we want to treat all of these as opportunities for aesthetic
enhancements to the property. You can see that there will be a level of stormwater management
will be involved with this project. How can we make that a very visually appealing aspect for
this property? I don’t know if we can go to the next slide as well. How do the buildings engage
these elements? What are the buildings, the quality of the materials and also making sure that
there’s that pedestrian connection that ties both back into the single family housing area but also
within the community. Within the development itself. We can go to the next slide. A key piece
that we have is the visibility that’s along Powers and the north/south road. We really take a look
at that as an opportunity for what we’re calling restaurant row. That has a prominent site
location. Again we talk about the stormwater pond. How can we make that a very strong
amenity to this development? Kind of speaks to the character and quality. And also looking for
26
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
upscale venues and that really gets down to, as Tom Palmquist and team will be able to go
through and find that right tenant mix that really enhances the community of Chanhassen. This
next image is to show kind of the character of what it could be. Stormwater ponding does not
necessarily have to be set aside into the back and really a subdued element. Let’s really try to
find a way to energize that and enhance it. We talk about lighting in certain areas. This has an
entertainment component to it so in certain areas we want to make sure that it’s very dynamic
and appealing and energetic. This is one of the opportunities that we can see happening along
that Powers Road. This is a what if as far as if a restaurant could also be able to take advantage
of that amenity. Could there be outdoor dining that looks over the top of the ponding? Could
there be connections to tie in for walkable access to this as well as outdoor trellises and really
maximizing the opportunities for our climate. We’ve got another view here. And again this is
really trying to tie it in so that it has outdoor amenities. Landscaping. Trellises. All the
elements to really add that level of quality that are going to be key and notable for this
development. We also know that there’s going to be some retail and hospitality with the
visibility along 212 so what we want to take a look with that is making sure that we enhance that
visibility. Making sure that it has that way find that draws you into the development. That it
starts to generate activity to the site. As Bahram had mentioned this is meant to be a mixed use
that brings this ingredient to draw in those daily trips but also becomes a destination and again a
regional attraction. To have a diverse mix to be able to have many opportunities to have the
synergies that will provide for the success of this development. Again when it comes down to
what are the materials that could be a part of the building designs. I would look at it as timeless
architecture. Quality materials. Natural stone. Brick. Earth tones. Elements that really have a
strong timeless aspect to them and also thinking very consciously of lighting. Accent lighting.
Washing surfaces and being very cognizant of having that level of energy that comes along with
that. We have another view of what it could look like. And again these were all meant to show
the spirit and the character of what it can be and as the project starts to develop we’ll be able to
share specific information on all of these buildings. We talk about lighting. This is a key piece
too. We’re very blessed to have these very long winter evenings so the lighting of what the
appeal is after 4:30 or whatever time the sun started to go down tonight, that that will be a key
aspect for how we look at the approach for the design. We have talked about the mixed use
component that has multi-family housing. We really look at that as being a transition from the
overall site diagram. How you proceed into the site coming from Powers within the
development and making a conscious transition over to the single family housing. We’ve talked
about the walkability which is a key piece and again this is kind of composite of what these
materials could be. You’ll see a consistency that comes along with natural stone. The color
palette has a very earth tone and very strong grounded nature to it and the proportions have a
very robust sense of engaging the ground plane. We do know that there’s an opportunity for
offices. With this the placement was very much, as Kate had mentioned, it’s a great transition to
come along from the existing neighborhoods. We see it happening along that northwest or the
north property edge and again visibility and access provides that synergy. That mixed use mix
that helps compliment both the retail and the restaurants and really looking to have a signature
architectural character that comes along with each specific building. Again when it ties into
what they could be all of this will be vetted out as the design moves forward but natural
27
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
materials. Stone. Glass. Natural daylighting which is a very key component for office designs.
Those will all be brought into the design palette. And again we talk about the character of the
foreground. How you and I will experience the space as we walk through this area. It gets down
to pathways. Bike paths. Pedestrian connections. I’m also talking about sustainable design
principles. I think Darren will be able to allude to that later on in the technical discussion of the
project and also making sure that the plantings and landscaping tie in with the very native and
environmentally sensitive landscaping strategy. With that it gets down to the hardscape. You’ll
see that certain elements, lighting. Benches. Roundabouts should they be in the project. That
they all become a very articulated and detailed architecturally designed element. Even getting
down to details as we start to get deeper into the project. And with that I believe we’ve covered
it so thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Hysjulien. Just remind us our name Darren please.
Darren Lazan: Sure, Mr. Mayor, members of the council my name is Darren Lazan. I’m with
Landform Professional Services. It’s good to be before you again tonight. You’ve gotten the
charm and the glamour out of the way and now I’ll try not to drag it down too much as we move
forward.
Mayor Laufenburger: Wait a minute, I thought there was a lot of substance in what they were
talking about Darren. Alright continue.
Darren Lazan: That too. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to go through this. Kate can you
do it Kate? Yeah sorry. So a little bit of background on how we got here. As you recall in 2014
a study was done by Jim McCombs, McCombs Group Limited that identified a regional trade
area focused on this site and as the exhibit from Jim’s report shows, while there is a small
southwest quadrant of the Twin Cities area that’s served by this site, the majority geographically
is quite a ways down the adjoining highways and quite a large geographical area so it has been
vetted and shown to be a regional commercial site. There’s certainly regional commercial
components and that’s what we look to build upon. So in that study, and again these are just
quick excerpts. If you have questions we can go into detail further. I didn’t want to go through
the whole study but as you recall from previous meetings as well there’s a fair amount of dollars
that are attributed to that market study that are available or could be served by this site. In this
case the retail opportunity here was estimated at roughly $705 million dollars annually. That’s
both from within the city of Chanhassen. Those are dollars that are leaving your community and
those outside the community that aren’t being spent here so we see that as a tremendous void in
the region and one that can be filled. When we translate $705 million dollars annually you get
roughly 1.1 or a little over a million square feet of that regional space that would support that
level so quite typical to a regional center. Million square feet. That is vetted out through the
study as a viable marketplace. When we look at what’s proposed today, and Kate went through
this a little bit. When we combine our office with our pure retail play we have roughly 620,000
square feet so you can see, and this is important only in that folks may express concern are we
over building the market and so forth. We are looking at right around half of the available retail
28
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
capacity on this site so we’re really focusing on right sizing this project to be a successful project
going forward. Picking those right users. Combining the uses and making sure this is a viable
project going forward. Next. There’s a handful of references in your staff report of other
regional centers in the area. Some comparisons made. I just wanted to call a few of these to
your attention quickly starting in the upper left hand corner. This is Riverdale Village in Coon
Rapids. Total approximate area of 255 acres so it’s well over twice the size of our project.
Roughly 969 or roughly a million square feet of retail in that area comprised of a number of
anchors and major retailers. Tamarack Village, one of the older centers in the comparisons today
doesn’t have an anchor per se. There’s some adjoining but doesn’t have one inside. That one’s
about 113 acres so very similar in size and as you break that down their retail was roughly
759,000 so three-quarters of a million marketplace if you compare Tamarack. Continuing
straight down one of the more recent, when you take Woodbury Lakes and the Commons area in
combination you have roughly 224 acres and 774,000 square feet of retail with a couple anchors
in that mix. And then finally a closer example and one that’s been fairly successful is West End
area including some of the original retail play in there. They have a couple anchors in there but
they’re roughly 149 acres. Little more footprint than Avienda but they have a mix of high
density residential and office, very similar to what’s being proposed but their retail component is
almost a million square feet so one more here. So if you look at those services that get, that
comprise one of these centers, and this is right out of the staff report as well, we look at a mix
that works in this location that’s comprised of entertainment. Some department store shopping.
Comparison shopping. Specialty retail. Restaurants and hotels. Next one. And Kate went over
this so I won’t waste too much time on this. It’s zoned and guided for a mix or a dual zone, dual
guiding for either office or regional commercial and currently zoned Ag which is a holding
district I believe for the PUD. And I want to talk a little bit about the AUAR process. I know
that’s a second agenda item tonight so I rolled this into this presentation so we won’t need to hop
back up again unless you have questions on the AUAR but in 2003 originally and adopted in
2005 the original AUAR boundary shown in white up here was completed. Our project is in red
up in the corner as you’re aware. At that time if you look in the upper left hand corner it was
contemplated that much of the commercial uses would be in the southwest corner of the project.
The pink areas there identified office and other retail uses and the remainder would be
residential. Well we know that the project didn’t develop that way. Much of the residential uses
went in that area and later comp plan and re-guiding showed a desire to have the regional
commercial or those commercial components up in the northeast corner where it made a lot of
sense with the Highway 212 connection and so forth but that AUAR hasn’t been updated so what
we’re doing in a later agenda item tonight is requesting you authorize the update to the AUAR
and proceed with that as well. Sorry. There was a period of time in 2012 where there was some
work done in advance of an update and I bring this up, this was done by staff to contemplate this
corner when a regional commercial or a commercial play was discussed in the northeast corner
and you can see for reference that it contemplated a mix of some regional commercial uses.
Some office uses. Some medium density residential and some high density residential and all 3
configurations are very similar to what we proposed today. Next slide. This is how those uses
break out and Jeff walked through some of those in order as we went around but we
predominantly show the red retail components at the major access points where those trips can
29
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
be best served. We show residential, both high density and medium density more on the west
and south sides. Transitioning to those neighborhoods and then office on the north transitioning
to those areas on the north as well. And this is one generation newer than the one in Kate’s
report but largely the same. We look at the residential components on the west and southwest.
Office along the north and the red retail commercial plays in the middle. The middle, if you can
switch to one more. There’s been a lot of discussion about the middle of the project or the more
lifestyle component or the village component. The plan that’s been submitted shows one option
but I just wanted to show you we’ve been considering a number of options for that middle
section. This really is the highest value retail component. This is where we see a lot of the
landscape architecture. A lot of the public spaces. A lot of the higher end shops existing in the
center of this where the retail in the southeast is more likely to be anchor and have a more
neighborhood play, more neighborhood character than the regional component in the middle.
But this one shows kind of a range from a fair amount of green public spaces and landscape
components and amenities through I think Option 5 was fairly straight forward but all of them
contain very high end quality materials in the landscape and the architecture as Jeff walked
through. And then a brief mention on the schedule and Kate went through in detail some of
those steps but we really look to get through this concept phase now as we’re here tonight. It
kind of represents a culmination of that concept design piece. We’d like to kick off the AUAR
tonight and work to get that done by spring. And then we look to parallel our PUD and rezoning,
preliminary plat approvals with those efforts so as that information comes in from the
environmental review we have the opportunity to incorporate that. There has been a fair amount
of work in preparing for those applications. We’ve had now our second neighborhood meeting.
We’ve gathered that information. Collected that to help inform the design as we move forward.
We look forward to getting your information tonight to continue that effort and then look to
complete construction documents late spring and get under construction as soon as possible in
2017. So with that I think that’s a brief run through. We certainly have everybody here to stand
for any questions but we are excited to have this before you tonight and look forward to your
comments and incorporating those into our subsequent applications.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright thank you Darren. Before you step down just council, any
questions of the applicant we can direct through Darren at this time? Mr. Campion.
Councilman Campion: I have one question right now. Talking schedule that’s up here, for
development of this magnitude from the time of construction start, you know assuming that’s
August, 2017, when would the first shops open?
Darren Lazan: Excellent question Mr. Mayor, council. You know there’s been some thought as
to the phasing and the approach to this project and our thought today is to come in with an
infrastructure package when we break ground next summer and focus entirely on the grading,
storm water, sewer, water and streets that need to be put in to make those connections from the
east to the west. And that likely is going to take all of 2017. I think there’s a chance that pads
could be opened up on the south side, especially of the Bluff Creek Boulevard as early as very
30
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
late ’17 but most likely spring of ’18 for the larger scale of construction and then those will open
as they come through the process over the next year, two years, three years.
Kate Aanenson: Mayor if I may just add a little bit to that too.
Mayor Laufenburger: Please do.
Kate Aanenson: So with the City Engineer and myself meeting there’s a lot of earthwork to
move. There’s the sewer and water you know as part of this. The main thread that ties the east
and west is Bluff Creek Boulevard so the phasing plan, all of those will be discussions with the
preliminary plat as they’re working on that. There’s just a lot of like I say framework issues to
resolve and a phasing plan but I think they’ve talked about on the economies of scale of kind of
doing most of that utility services at once. There might be some areas around that perimeter that
they could wait on but a lot of that’s going to, as we work through this process kind of get a
better handle on that. Meeting with the neighbors and through the AUAR.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Mr. Campion did you have any other questions?
Councilman Campion: That’s it for now.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay council any other questions? This is a great time you know to bring
forward if you have a question of Mr. Lazan. Anybody?
Councilwoman Ryan: Are we doing general questions and comments?
Mayor Laufenburger: General questions. Yeah let me if you wouldn’t mind let me just clarify
this. We will, we’re going to address the concept PUD to start with. The second item will be
discussion of the AUAR and either eventually ordering of the AUAR or not but the first part is
let’s get questions and then concluding the questions I will ask each council member to offer
comments and suggestions to the developer on what you would like to see so one of the, one of
the specific requirements we have as a council is to offer our comments to the developer so they
hear from this council what it is we would like to see but if you would like to have clarifying
questions now would be a great time to do it. Council understand what my plan is? Okay,
alright. So if you have questions, general questions of any sort now would be a great time to ask.
Councilwoman Ryan: I don’t know who will be to answer them but I’ll direct them to you and
then whoever needs to step up.
Darren Lazan: Sounds great.
Councilwoman Ryan: I just have a little bit of a disconnect when I look at some of the different
pictures and you know Mr. Akradi’s, his vision and when you speak I think you said that you’re
looking for you know a healthy way of life village. And then I see some of the plans that come
31
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
up, village options. And then I compare those to what Mr. Hysjulien presented and they’re all,
did I say that correct?
Mayor Laufenburger: Hysjulien.
Councilwoman Ryan: Hysjulien. Oh Hysjulien. Or Jeff. I’ll just call you Jeff. We go way
back right Jeff? So I see you know, I’m trying to get an understanding of what the real vision is
and you know some of the comments or questions that we get from our residents is we don’t
really want to be a Woodbury and we don’t want to be a Coon Rapids and when I see Jeff’s
pictures that’s exciting to me. When I look at some of the village options where it looks similar
to that, that concerns me and so I would just like some clarification on you know what we should
be anticipating.
Darren Lazan: Sure.
Bahram Akradi: Darren I’m going to take this.
Darren Lazan: Yep come on up.
Bahram Akradi: So I don’t like.
Mayor Laufenburger: Would you.
Bahram Akradi: You want me to come up.
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah we’re broadcasting this Bahram.
Bahram Akradi: Any of these 4, just want to be clear. What, the one that we’re showing you
right now, go to the main picture. This one I like to build kind of a streetscape. Walking right in
the middle of those little shops. Have connections from all directions. I like to really make it so
you want to walk around the space. The reason we are not coming to you with a hard fast deal
because that’s not the way it’s going, the reality is we’re going to have to respond to what the
market wants. We have to capture a whole bunch of different interested parties, which is what
Tom’s doing right now. We have a huge list of people and then once we get that we have to try
to piece it together. The tenant mix is going to be incredibly important and how we mix these
things so right now just to give you guys a bit of a comfort, it feels like there is enough interest
momentum for almost everything in the perimeter. Like those office buildings for medical office
we have some interest. We’re checking with the different clinics, different providers in Twin
Cities to make sure we go to all of them and find out who are the people who want to build
additional amenities in the community and then either we get a professional organization to build
those for these guys. We sell them the land and demand the look or I develop them myself and
lease it to them, whichever one it would take. So I think we will get, and we have a whole list of
people who are, that have been contacted by Tom or they’ve contacted us. I get calls from, since
32
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
this has been kind of a little bit publicized in the papers and stuff we’ve been getting calls from a
lot of different brokers. They all want, they feel like they have interest to bring people in so once
we get a little bit more of that and start getting some of the pieces then we will be able to design
the right combination of stuff and come back to you with a more focused plan. But if you look at
through all of them you know we’ve put this one on paper on purpose because this is the one I
like the most. I just have to find the right uses for that. That middle part really has got to be
done tastefully and it needs to have benches and sidewalks and you know streets. I mean it
needs to look like a Vail village and that’s what I really want. If you’re walking through Vail
village that’s what I want to get there.
Councilwoman Ryan: Right.
Bahram Akradi: With pavers and you know not all asphalt et cetera but it’s just a PUD at this
point.
Councilwoman Ryan: Right and you had mentioned because I know speaking of PUD’s I
believe that it was in there that we wanted 2 anchor stores but then in your introduction you said
that you have been going around to regional sites and have changed from regional centers that
have these anchor stores to smaller, you know to the healthy way of life villages so do you think
that there’s a need for these anchor stores or not?
Bahram Akradi: So let me give you a little bit of background because I’m on the phone all day
long with developer throughout the day. Right now the movement in the country is away from
enclosed malls and into what’s considered open air. The other thing is a little bit more direction
towards even in the suburban areas people are gravitation towards a little more urban look so
maybe shops on the main floor and then you know residence on the top et cetera. When the
market allows it so when I mentioned to you this healthy way of life village I envision a place
where there’s a senior housing. There is kids you know kind of a school. There is people who
are middle aged, young et cetera. Everybody is kind of mixed in. I don’t want to do the same
thing at a million square feet. It’s kind of, that becomes more like a power center which is really
kind a thing of the past and enclosed malls are all redoing their, piece by piece and so the other
thing that I would mention to you guys is in UK there is 4 square feet of retail per capita. In
Germany there’s 3. In United States there’s 24 square feet of retail per capita so we’re struggling
with retail. There’s too much retail and so you really have to right size that. Now if you look at
the real estate in US, 4 to 5 square feet out of the 24 they’re doing fantastic because they’re in
dense urban areas that there isn’t enough retail space so if one tenant goes out there’s 3 other
waiting to go into that space. The other 19 square feet is struggling to keep the tenants so what
I’m going is I’m taking basically what I’ve done is I’ve taken one of these malls, let’s say like
Southdale and actually have shown the developers, the owners what it could look like 10 years
from now if it had gradually shrunk in the middle. Built in the perimeter and eventually the
middle goes away and becomes open air. Similar to what we are showing here but that’s a
transition plans for them so this is relatively easy because we don’t have all the obligations they
have with the tenants and the leases that they have to work. They have to buy people out and it’s
33
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
a lot of work when you’re coming back from that. So that’s what we want to do but what I can
tell you is that my goal is to make sure whatever we do it’s classic and beautiful but it has to
market has to dictate within that desire it has to be market driven. Does that make sense?
Councilwoman Ryan: It does yes.
Bahram Akradi: Okay. Any other questions?
Councilwoman Ryan: Mine are mostly have to do with the AUAR so I’ll hold off on that.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, alright.
Councilwoman Ryan: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Anybody else questions? Mr. Campion go ahead.
Councilman Campion: I guess one more thing occurred relative to parking. I mean in each of
the concepts you see a fair amount of parking lots apparently above ground. Are there like West
End and some of the others are there options being looked at for pulling more of that parking
below ground?
Darren Lazan: Sure this concept contemplates structured parking only on the high density
residential. All the rest is parked at city required parking on surface parks. That’s the general
configuration for a product like this. I think as the users come forward, Bahram talked about this
being driven by the marketplace. As those users come forward, as those pieces get put together I
think that could be an option but right now it’s contemplated that those would be all surface
parks.
Councilman Campion: Okay.
Darren Lazan: Another thing I’d add to Councilwoman Ryan’s comment or question as well I
think the photos and the architecture are the vision. That’s what is driving the design of this
center. The purpose of this site plan it’s very basic site plan is to start generating the numbers to
inform the AUAR so we can get that feedback back and start to work through those site plans
again so really if you look at the project it’s really Bahram’s vision and not architecture that’s
driving the development site moving forward.
Bahram Akradi: The most what we think is going to happen is we’ll be able to develop the
whole site. Put the connection to Bluff Creek and really first focus on getting the perimeter
finished or get started and then the middle is going to find it’s path and we’ll be back in front of
you with different designs but the parking once again like when I designed you know Life Time
to go in we need X number of parking for our use. So typical cities maybe ask for 5 per 1,000.
We actually need 6 per 1,000 so we over park over the city requirements in most places. For our
34
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
use. Different users based on their, you know their traffic they need to kind of think through. A
smart retailer knows how much parking they need based on the size of their boxes so the
challenge there is obviously you don’t want to over park because it becomes like a sea of parking
and not friendly. And then you can’t under park because then you kill the businesses so that just
becomes the balance of having to work it in a piece by piece, detail by detail. Does that make
sense?
Councilman Campion: Yeah.
Bahram Akradi: We will be, you know we will be working with you guys through the codes and
making sure it’s the right balance of that.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Councilwoman Tjornhom I think you had a couple questions.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I think I have some comments and some questions or maybe.
Mayor Laufenburger: Either are allowed.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yep. You know I actually am relieved this is at this point right now
because I think that this has been kind of a missing piece of the puzzle for this community for a
while. It’s always kind of been in limbo. Never quite sure what direction it was going. What
was going to actually be developed or the type of tone it would take if it was developed so I think
that this is good for our community. I just, I want to make sure it’s the right fit and you know we
talk about retail space and competing for it and tenants and that brings me back to our downtown
and as a council member that’s always been on my radar that this has to be something that
compliments us and it doesn’t compete with what our community’s already built and one of
those things I feel strongly about is the type of uses for this development and one of those uses
that’s always hanging out there that everyone that’s come through has always said that if they
don’t get it this development won’t work or this project won’t work is a grocery store and I’m
not sure if it’s too soon to talk about that but that’s one of my concerns is to know what some of
those uses are going to be because we’ve always felt that the core of our downtown to bring
people down for the everyday uses, the grocery stores and those type of retail establishments
keep our downtown healthy and so if someone could address that.
Bahram Akradi: So I think that’s a great point because it’s the one that everybody has brought in
and I met the Mayor long before I had any interest in this project and we talked about downtown.
I had nothing to do with it. I had no interest in doing anything with it. I had just heard about it
from Scott and then you know I met the Mayor and he just was appointed and wanted to meet
with me and elected Life Time. So here’s what I would say to you. My point of view is that we
need to be proactive about downtown offensively not defensively. Downtown needs to, you
know the City needs to do everything they can, and I’ve committed that I will be willing, ready
and able to help with development downtown. If we want downtown to be a pedestrian like
downtown, if you have a vision like Excelsior or St. Louis Park or anything that is more, it is not
35
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
going to work. I hate to be so blunt about it but I’m going to for clarity. It is not going to work
in the current form you have right now. Right now you have 3 huge big box users. One story.
Target, Cub Food and Byerly’s. Those developments are fast, they’re the type of developments
that somebody needs to drive in and drive out. I’m not going to walk to Byerly’s. I’m not going
to walk to Cub Food. I’m not going to walk to Target so if some day some of those
developments, I don’t know which one and market will define it itself, would be able to be
redeveloped so you could actually build shops, apartments on top. Make some of those
developments become 4-5 stories. Build the connection. It needs a master development plan to
how gradually make this thing kind of evolve to something that is more urban looking for that.
Now if I come back at it from the other direction is I think you know a lot of emphasis has been
put on grocery store so let me tell you from the development standpoint why grocery stores are
so important. If you look at anybody trying to sell a shopping center they’re touting grocery
anchored number one. Or they say it’s shadow grocery anchor so basically it means they’re
adjacent to another shopping mall that has grocery store. That is a big factor for all the other
retailers that would be complimentary that we don’t have downtown. Would have an interest to
come out there. Their interest would dramatically drop if you don’t have a major anchor that
drives everyday traffic so that’s why people want the grocery. That’s why we need to have that.
It’s the right. Now let’s get the other direction. Let’s say we don’t allow a grocery store go in
this intersection. A mile out away from this on 212 you’re out of Chanhassen and there is no
way you can stop somebody going from, if they can’t go here they want everything the same
thing the way I would approach it at Life Time. If the City didn’t want me here I go as close as I
could go to be outside of that jurisdiction and get myself in. I don’t really believe we should
approach, and again I say we because I want to do this with you guys. Not against the City. Not
in a confrontation with the City. I just I really have so much to do. We’re doing 1 ½ million
square feet of development. I’m personally leading at Life Time over the next 3 years so I’m so
busy. I don’t want to do this unless we’re doing it friendly, lovingly, in partnership with the
City. We’re fully committed to you but I don’t believe the project is as viable. I don’t want to
tell it can’t get done. I just don’t think it’s as viable without a large format grocery store. But
that’s the way every developer would want that to develop something like this but that’s the
reason we want that and I don’t think you can stop it so points I wanted to reiterate. If we don’t
put it in here they go a mile away and they’re going to, if they want to compete they’re going to
compete. We live in a country that it’s all about free competition you know and the best player
shall win so that’s the way it works. And finally I mean even you know we had for a period of
time Cub Food was viewing this site as an additional site to their downtown location. They
weren’t necessarily saying this is going to compete so much that we can’t do business over there
and at the end of the day I’m not sure that if one of those grocery stores changes we wouldn’t be
able to achieve a better direction for the City and what we really want to accomplish downtown.
It might be actually our opportunity to build more high density uses in downtown to make that
connection for pedestrian connection. Does that help?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah, thank you.
Bahram Akradi: Thank you.
36
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Bethany anything else?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: No that’s it.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. McDonald did you have any comments or questions at this time?
Darren I just wanted, there’s a couple things I just want to discuss. There’s 3 primary entrances
into the property. Powers Boulevard and then is it Sunrise? Is that the one on the north?
Sunrise Court.
Darren Lazan: I think that’s Millner.
Kate Aanenson: It’s Sunset.
Darren Lazan: Sunset okay.
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah Sunset. Then on the west would be Bluff Creek. Possibly one on
Mills.
Darren Lazan: That’s the Mills.
Mayor Laufenburger: So you see, you don’t see a complication with those 3 entrances at this
time, unless the AUAR comes in and say you need 2 more.
Darren Lazan: Mr. Mayor that’s absolutely right. We don’t preliminarily see any issue. We
think there’s going to be adequate access off of Lyman, Powers and an interconnect to Bluff
Creek that will serve the neighborhood to the southwest but absolutely right. That’s the purpose
of the AUAR is to run through our numbers. Compare those to the traffic studies and the
regional work that’s been done previously and make sure that we can adequately serve the site so
we will be reviewing that through the AUAR.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Now you’re identifying office structure on the north, northeast and
the northeast area and you’re also identifying housing, let’s call it senior housing and then multi-
family housing. Do you have in mind a number of families that you want living on your 120
acre property? Do you have a number in mind?
Darren Lazan: That’s great. Great question. We have roughly between 20 and 40 units in the
medium density. Roughly 300 in the high density market rate product and another 140 seems to
be the market for the senior.
Mayor Laufenburger: So that sounds like about 600, is that about right?
37
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Darren Lazan: So you can extrapolate that and that’s a ballpark guess. Obviously as those plans
get solidified and the numbers will move around a little bit, that’s what we’re counting on right
now. I think maybe it’s important also to discuss the reason we did the comparison to the other
centers is to show we’re smaller in both footprint and in the square footage is to kind of illustrate
the need to have the perfect mix of uses so that we have the right families in the housing product
to support the night time and morning uses. We have the right office users to support the lunch
time crowd for those restaurants and we really create that synergy that’s necessary so that’s
where for us as a development team that’s where the uses become so critical because we don’t
have the luxury of a million square feet where we can cycle tenants through there. This is a
smaller boutique regional play and we need to have the best possible players and the most energy
from morning til night.
Mayor Laufenburger: So 600 people, that’s going to be probably, or excuse me 600 families.
That’s probably going to be 1,200 to 1,500 people of all ages probably.
Darren Lazan: Sure.
Mayor Laufenburger: Maybe a little bit less than that.
Darren Lazan: Maybe a little. Apartments tend to be 1 point something.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay talk about the offices up on the north. How many people do you see
that you would need to put in those offices in order to support some of the, like the lunch times
and stuff like that?
Darren Lazan: So those are, right now they’re shown contemplated to be a medical office use so
that’s kind of a hybrid between an office and kind of a retail where you’ll have that turnover all
day long as folks come through to the medical office users so that’s that employee base that you
would see in an employer but also those trips in the patients and so forth that come through.
There’s really 150,000 square feet of that product right there so it depends how that space broke
out but there are thousands of trips per day that will come through that between the employees
and the folks that are visiting those clinics.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. You showed a market opportunity of 700 million and you said that
that would warrant about a million one square feet. Yet your building 600,000 square feet. Are
you missing out on a market opportunity?
Darren Lazan: So that’s a great question again too. I think it’s important from a development’s
perspective that we not start out at market capacity. It puts us at a disadvantage. Nobody knows
what the long term play is for that retail. I think Bahram walked through some of the concerns
and of the retail and the character going forward as that happens so as a development team we
felt like it was important to get a better mix of uses that could support probably a smaller square
footage of users successfully and make sure they’re vibrant and viable.
38
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Let’s see. I think at this time what I’d like to do is offer the
council an opportunity to speak to things that you would like to see in the development. Okay in
other words let’s try to provide some guidance and I would like you to, I think I’d also like you
to speak to are you in favor of, in opposition to or neutral about that grocery anchor. I think I’d
like to hear that as well. Okay who would like to start? Anybody? Mr. Campion.
Councilman Campion: In general I would say that I’m in favor of the concept of a grocery
anchor seeing it as still a compliment to downtown and again if it’s not built there it will be you
know just around the corner in Chaska or Eden Prairie or wherever. Things that I would like to
see in the development would be more of the unique small shops that I’m thinking of in the
center of the village. Things like you know coffee shops. Like you know a small microbrewery,
tap room, something like that would be nice. But just variety. A variety of unique shops.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, anything else?
Councilman Campion: Other things to note is just I know I’ve heard a fair amount, as I know the
other, my fellow council members have about traffic concerns and flow in and out of the
neighborhood on Bluff Creek Boulevard there and just to pay special attention to that and I know
that there’s a lot of development and planning yet to be done but just to keep that as a primary
concern.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Anybody else want to offer some comments or suggestions?
Councilwoman Ryan: I will Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilwoman Ryan.
Councilwoman Ryan: You know thanks for putting this forward again. I’m very excited about
the potential. You know one thought that I have is we keep coming back to that this is a regional
mall or regional lifestyle center but it is in Chanhassen and it affects the people of Chanhassen,
specifically the ones that neighbor this and have been used to having you know a grassy knoll
full of pumpkins in the fall so I just want to be very sensitive to that piece of it. In terms of
specific uses I would like similar to what Councilman Campion said, you know something a little
more specialized. You know we aren’t Excelsior but the way Excelsior has approached their
downtown with making it unique to Excelsior is something that is appealing to a lot of the folks
in Chanhassen that I’ve heard from. I am not opposed to a grocery store and so I have, I don’t
have any issues with that. I support downtown. I grocery shop in downtown and would remain
loyal to downtown but I don’t have any opposition to having a grocer out in this space. I just and
again I’m going to save some of my comments in terms of some of the environmental impacts
when we get to the AUAR because that is a concern of mine. I just when you think of being a
visionary you know you talk about sustainability and the materials, you know be unique. You
know you’ve done a great job with Life Time and the way that you’ve rolled out the various
39
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
concepts and have continued to evolve that organization. I’d like to see that same vision applied
to this project because I think there is a lot of opportunity to embrace some of the environmental
issues that you’re faced with. I would like to utilize them versus have them go away and so
when you talk about shops and stores I’d rather not see fast foods. Something for families.
Something that screams community. All the signs say we’re a community of life and I think the
Mayor was bringing up good questions in terms of ages and numbers of people and families. I
mean I hope that is what this is the lifestyle and a way of life for Chanhassen and just as you go
through this planning process to think of the future and keep the folks of the city very involved
and engaged. Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilwoman Ryan. Anybody else comments?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I think one phrase I heard was walking around Vail. Is that what I
heard someone mention? Did you mention that it would be like walking around Vail?
Bahram Akradi: That’s what I want it to be like.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes. That is what I would like you to build too.
Mayor Laufenburger: We need mountains. We need mountains for that.
Darren Lazan: That’s the grading that has to come in.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: That’s the environmental impact study. And so you know I think
that’s wonderful. You know we all have our concept of what that would be like and that is a
vision and what we’re all talking about now are visions but in reality when we talk about, you
know I’ve heard the phrase for a long time it was coined a lifestyle center and it was, I don’t
know what some of the other acronyms were used but I always thought, I never bought that
because let’s just be honest. These shops or businesses or establishments that will be at this
lifestyle center or Avienda, it’s going to be market driven so we can request a tap room. We can
request a bistro. We can request whatever we want but in the end it’s really going to be market
driven and who wants to come to Avienda and start a business or maintain a business and so that
is still to be seen. I am totally against a grocery store for many reasons. For one I think the
argument that was presented was that you know for a retail establishment to succeed it needs a
grocery store to be an anchor or around it. Well that same argument then pertains to our
downtown. In order for our downtown to be successful we need to have those stores here and as
it’s council it’s not our job once again I’ve always said to distinguish what businesses should be
here and what shouldn’t be here but from the very start of this whole process one of the uses that
was excluded has always been a grocery store and I think changing the rules right now at this
40
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
point is, I don’t know it’s kind of unfair to everybody else who tried to give it a shot to come in
and develop this property and so I will be against it for I don’t know how anyone can ever
change my mind because I know our downtown business council at that time was against it and
while it’s not our job, once again like I said to dictate who’s here and who’s not here, I just think
it’s only fair if council plays by the rules it’s been playing with for quite a while. And I think
with that I too would hope that we can work together and that it can be a pleasant process and
one that we all enjoy and we can work together as a developer and a council and a community
and do something that we’re proud of. So that’s it.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilwoman Tjornhom. Mr. McDonald do you have any
comments you’d like to share?
Councilman McDonald: Sure I’ll share some comments. You have to excuse me I’ve got a cold
so it’s difficult to talk tonight but I’ve kind of been involved with this thing for as long as I’ve
been on council, going back to 2008 or 2006 when I was on the Planning Commission. It’s
always lacked vision and I say that because no one ever wanted to put anything down on paper to
give us an idea of what could be. You made a good start I think that it is going to be totally
market driven. You know it’s nice to put the little boxes up there but you’ve got to fill them in
so I understand what that is like and there’s a lot of wants within a community as to what people
would like to see in there but again it all comes down to the market and what you can talk to
come in because every business will want to be successful. They don’t want to be one of your
businesses that rotates in and out so that part of the vision and design is totally up to you all. I
am open to whatever businesses you want to bring in. I mean they’ll come back here. We’ll
have to evaluate and talk about it but yes, whatever it would take to make this successful I would
be more than willing to listen to the arguments of why this particular store in this particular area.
So I think the best thing I can say is at least I’m encouraged. It looks as though finally a team’s
been put together that has some idea about the land and maybe a vision to share with what could
be so I look forward to that. Thanks.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. McDonald. Darren let me just offer a few things. First of
all to you and the entire team you’ve, the manner in which you’ve come forward as contrasting
March of 2015 I think all of the council would agree that is a marked improvement so that’s one
of the reasons why you have cooperation from city staff and I see no reason why that won’t
continue and I wish all of you best of luck. I would also ask Mr. Akradi to extend our sincere
good wishes to Mark Zappes and hopefully his health returns very, very soon. It’d be fun to see
him back on this project. Let’s see I also think there is no question in any of our minds I believe
that what you build will be aesthetically beautiful and it will be timeless and it will be, it will be
something that the community and the region will want to go to. I do agree with Mr. McDonald
that the market demands will dictate who gets in there and I can assure you that you’re going to
be turning over those tenants just like the downtown turns over tenants and Eden Prairie Center
turns over tenants. I mean in 1974 I called on Eden Prairie Center when Sears was like holy
cow, Sears is coming to Eden Prairie. And now it’s like so what you know. Sorry Sears. But
things change and I think that anything that we attempt to do to shackle you from responding to
41
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
the market demand I think that perhaps over steps our role. I will say this though, I would agree
with Councilwoman Ryan, I don’t want to see fast food there. I want to see some nice
restaurants. I want to see some restaurants so that when people think about let’s go out to dinner
on Friday night dear, they don’t go Wildfire, Biaggio, Redstone, those. They go hey, let’s go to
Avienda. There’s 3 chances we can, or 4 or 5 chances that we can find something that we would
like. I’d like to see a jewelry store there. Not because I want to buy any jewelry but we’ve got
families that are coming here and we’ve got kids that are graduating high school and they’re
thinking about buying rings for their sweeties in the next 3 or 4 years. Let’s put a jewelry store
down there.
Audience: Wedding Day?
Mayor Laufenburger: Market the man. Market the man. I think it’s important that we as a
council and a community recognize that we are competing with other communities. This
regional, and I agree with Councilwoman Tjornhom. I don’t know that it’s a lifestyle center.
You know people live their lifestyle some with jeans and a sweatshirt. Some with a tuxedo. If
you make something attractive and if you make something that people want to be part of,
whether it’s walking. Whether it’s lights on at night when the snow comes down. Somebody
has a romantic stroll on their way to a restaurant. If it’s done nicely people will want to be there
if you have a tenant mix that responds to the market demand. This council has made decisions in
the past based on letting the market decide who the winners are and I think that’s an appropriate
action for us to consider in the future. Let’s see is the wetland part of the AUAR Kate?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay so then I’ll reserve that. I do want to say this though, you’ve got to
make sure that this is public friendly. I want it to be a destination not just because of the retail
space or the hotel or the whatever anchors you have. I want it to be an attractive place where
people want to go and they may not want to spend any money but they just want to be there and
hang out and watch people and enjoy that sunset at 4:30 on a Thanksgiving evening and I think
that’s the best. That’s the sum total of comments. Staff is there anything you want to add to Mr.
Lazan?
Kate Aanenson: No. I would just say we’d take these comments with the Planning Commission
and make that part of the record for their direction.
Mayor Laufenburger: That would be fine. That would be fine. Thank you. Mr. Akradi?
Bahram Akradi: Yeah I’d like to give you guys some comments back. First of all I want to
thank you all for your comments and I want to assure all of you that I heard you and yes, I am
going to reject fat checks from food companies I don’t, I can’t tolerate what they do with their
food or what they have in their food. Preservative, et cetera. We’re committed to you to build a
beautiful development that we will be far exceeding from what the City’s codes are for
42
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
landscaping. My desire with the team is to use beautiful grasses. Beautiful landscaping.
Beautiful sidewalks. Pavers in the development. I want to make it really, really beautiful. The
more beautiful we make this development the more attractive it becomes. I can set the tone as a
developer of the 100 acres and then I have to work on the Feng Shui. I have to make sure that it
feels good. It feels healthy. The geometry of the place is right and it all wants to work. So
there’s been a couple mentions about the lifestyle centers so I mean that term could be used in all
different kinds of ways and it finally means nothing to a lot of people but at least for me my
definition is a place that makes people want to come and hang out just like you guys asked for.
For more than just shopping. They come. They spend time and then while they’re spending
time they may shop. They may see a movie. They may do different things so we, I hugely
appreciate your support. I appreciate your comments about the market driven. We have to
respond to that. There’s no way I can develop this without responding to the market but we will
set the tone as you’ve asked. It will be healthy looking, feeling. It will be class act. It will be
first class from every element that we demand from all the retailers. We will push the project as
far as we can push it. As far in terms of the quality that we demand from everybody coming in
that the market can allow. It will be top end of what the market would allow before I start losing
people because they wouldn’t want to spend that kind of money going to this type of
demographic or market. But I think as a beautiful market. I am super excited to work on this
and I’ve heard you guys. We’ll work on everything that you have mentioned. We will be back
in front of you with more detailed plans and I really appreciate what you guys have done today.
Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Akradi. Ms. Aanenson is there anything else we need to
do for item number one at this time?
Kate Aanenson: No.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright let’s move to item number 2 which is the resolution ordering the
update of the AUAR.
APPROVE RESOLUTION ORDERING REVIEW FOR UPDATE TO THE 2005 AUAR.
Mayor Laufenburger: Do you have a staff report Ms. Aanenson?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah I just have a brief one.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: Just again the goal here then would be to order that AUAR update and in
addition to that you’re approving a resolution for that with the professional service agreement for
the two consultants that are involved in the project. So again just for everybody that’s tracking
this project, the concept PUD with the resolution would allow that to go forward so the AUAR is
a hypothetical development scenario which is again where we got caught up in the illustrative
43
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
drawings in those. We know that’s going to change. That’s going to give you the threshold and
if you look through the consultants contract, Hoisington-Koegler’s you can see that they’ve,
they’re going to look at two development alternatives so you’re looking at what the maximum
threshold would be and if you think about that with Total Wine when things moved and changed
we said that as long as we didn’t exceed those thresholds for traffic there was flexibility within
that so this would be the same sort of thing here again. The PUD we’re going to look at, we will
put together specific uses. There will be some things you don’t want in there. We talked about
that maybe tonight and those will evolve as we look at that but there’ll be a development
scenario. The reason it has to be updated is because this was done, as Darren pointed out in his
presentation too in 2003 this was low density and then in the Comprehensive Plan in 2008 it was
changed to the office or regional commercial so it’s updated. There’s numerous reasons why it’s
being updated. That would be the one, there’s been a change and it’s been over 5 years since this
was looked at so for those reasons alone it needs to be updated. So with this approval tonight
we’ve also included the two professional consultant contracts. Hoisington-Koegler and then also
Kimley-Horn who both worked on the previous project and we had recommended those two last
year too so there’s a professional service agreement for both consultants in your packet along
with a resolution. Again the City is the regulatory unit of government so we will be holding
those hearings. If you look in the proposal from Hoisington-Koegler there will be workshops
with city staff and the council and commission. There will also be a workshop or a
neighborhood so we will also be meeting with the public in the area too. That will give them an
opportunity to look at the numbers. Look at the impacts. Obviously the wetland is a big, one of
the biggest concerns. I know that was raised at the neighborhood, I mean at the public hearing at
the Planning Commission. There was concerns about that impact as members of the staff have
too. They understand that’s a big issue and we’ll be working through all the requirements for
that to go forward. So with that we are recommending this motion and that would be approve
the resolution ordering the update. In addition to that you’d be approving the professional
services agreement so the process is outlined. There’s a timeline included in your packet. It
pretty much mirrors what Darren had showed you on their timeline and that’s what we
recommending for your motion tonight so I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have
on the process itself.
Mayor Laufenburger: Kate could you just, before I ask the council for any questions, can you
just clarify. I think it was May 9, 2015 we ordered an AUAR for the previous developer.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: …following that closely. What’s the reason why that didn’t go forward
at that time? Do you know?
Kate Aanenson: The developer chose not to pursue the.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, so that wasn’t a City decision not moving forward.
44
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Kate Aanenson: No. The City executed the contracts. The developer never, I mean the
consultant never chose to do it.
Mayor Laufenburger: So it was never consummated between the developer and the AUAR
contractor?
Kate Aanenson: Correct and to be clear on this, they’ll be giving us the escrow. The developer
has to give the City escrow so we will manage those contracts and anything that’s, it’s not usual
we go back to the developer.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. Let’s do this. Questions of staff on the AUAR. And I,
actually let’s just say we may also ask a question of the applicant. Darren is there something you
would like to say to us regarding the AUAR before we go with our questions?
Darren Lazan: Well I think Mr. Mayor, thank you for that opportunity and I do want to take a
quick second. You made some very gracious comments about our team and I didn’t get a chance
that it’s been a pleasure re-starting this project and working with your team. Great group of
people. We’ve worked through dozens of details below the surface that you folks don’t get
bothered with at this level but it’s been a great team. Great people to work with and we look
forward to continuing that as we move forward. The AUAR is just one component of that. This
is a study. There’s no pitch. No approval tonight for this. We’re simply asking you to order the
study so we can get that information back again. Those environmental components, some are
simpler. Traffic is pretty well studied. We look at picking up those comments and incorporating
those. Carrying those trips from Powers through to the neighborhood. Those components are
pretty straight forward. Some not so straight forward like the wetland component and we look
forward to addressing that. We have a first class team that’s worked on assessing existing
wetlands. Looking at options going forward of how they can be preserved. If they’re not
preserved how can they be recreated elsewhere. We look forward to getting the information
from the AUAR. Turning around and presenting that in detail back to you again so we’re excited
to get this started and get this feedback back in a timely fashion so we can incorporate all of that
into our next application.
Kate Aanenson: If I could just piggyback on what Darren said. So we’ve been meeting with
Hoisington-Koegler Group just to make sure everybody’s on the same page understanding what
we’re trying to scope and the timelines and so there’s been a couple of meetings on that already.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. I was going to ask you a question, opening question but you may
have answered it but I’m going to ask the question anyway and if you choose to answer it
differently. So what does the AUAR provide to you Darren? What does the AUAR bring that
you need?
Darren Lazan: So the AUAR is your guiding document so rather than us taking a shot at traffic,
just pick one out. Coming in here and telling you hey this is, we propose 4 lanes in and we think
45
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
that’s sufficient and then you needing to study it and come back and say no, we need 6 lanes.
This gives us that guiding feedback on all of those environmental components so we look
forward to getting on the same page with the community on all of those. The air, noise, the light,
the sewer, water, the street work and the environmental wetlands culture resource. All of those
components getting on the same page as the community so we can bring forward a project that is
better in sync.
Mayor Laufenburger: So the AUAR gives you very specific side rails if you will on what you
have to answer.
Darren Lazan: That’s a great assessment, yep. Gives us some boundaries.
Mayor Laufenburger: So is there ever a situation where you are not able to respond or not able
to comply with what an AUAR requests?
Darren Lazan: So the AUAR is, updates especially are usually approached in a very methodical
manner. It looks at the original component. Says what’s changed and what further mitigation
needs to take place. If that mitigation comes back with something that can’t be met we would be
looking at proposing something that meets the intent. I think the comment about intent was
made earlier. That meets that intent or otherwise addresses but generally the AUAR document
comes back with feedback that we can work with and propose something that meets the intent of
the AUAR.
Mayor Laufenburger: And it’s quite possible Darren, and I’m asking this of you Kate too, it’s
quite possible that what you come back with something intending to satisfy the needs of the
AUAR. Is it possible the City Council may not have authority in order to grant the approval of
that intent? Kate maybe that’s to you.
Darren Lazan: It’s probably both, I’m sorry go ahead.
Kate Aanenson: Well I was going to say you know the wetland would be one. I think there’s
dual jurisdiction on that. The City would still be the LGU and so is the Army Corps so there’s
some things on that but to Darren’s point I think a lot of it is just acceptable mitigation that both
parties have to agree to and another jurisdiction. I do want to add too that as part of this dialogue
that we’ve been having prior to being here they’ve brought in another group. One of the main
concerns we had is walkability with not only speed but volume of traffic so they’re working with
the Toole Group. Fantastic and that’s their bailiwick is traffic calming. They work all over the
United States so we’re excited to see kind of what suggestions they have to make this a really
great project so that’s a great firm so I think we all have the same goal. We’re moving in that
direction so what it’s going to do as Darren stated is answer a lot of questions that the residents
have. You know how can we mitigate these things and come up with suggestions of mitigation
so it will be a good process.
46
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, alright. Thanks for that opening. Now let’s turn it over to council.
Any questions or comments you have about granting this AUAR? Anybody? Mr. McDonald I
know you’re a little sick so okay. Let me move down here. Councilwoman Ryan, go ahead.
Councilwoman Ryan: Sure thank you Mr. Mayor. You answered my questions. I don’t have
any questions just my comment would be as much as I care about no fast foods or I’m okay with
a grocery store, my biggest hurdle right now is going to be what comes out of the environmental
impact study. Specifically the traffic impacts. I’m very concerned about the traffic going into,
along Bluff Creek into the neighborhoods. The conversations about Mill Street. So traffic for
sure. Grading. Getting a better understanding on grading of that parcel and then of course as I
mentioned probably about 10 times the impact to the wetlands so I actually do, that spurred a
question Kate. So when through the AUAR then do you also get feedback from the different
jurisdictions? Do they give their input as well?
Kate Aanenson: Yeah. I think that’s the other nice thing about so that will go out for what we
say is jurisdictional review so everybody will comment on that back and you’ll be able to see all
those comments and then we also respond to those comments so, and that will also be all public
transparent and the residents can see those too and make sure that we’ve adequately addressed
them.
Darren Lazan: Yeah I think the nice thing about the AUAR process it is as it says, it’s an
alternative areawide review is it’s very much in keeping with Bahram’s mission for this project
to work on this with you as a community and the AUAR process we work together to scope the
extent of the study. We set that. We participate in getting you the information you need. Your
consultants then analyze it. Get it back to us. We work through that so yeah there’s all around
of reviewers comment on that so we get everybody’s feedback and then at the same time we’re
paralleling our wetland application and process as well so we’re getting Corps of Engineers.
BWSR. Everybody else along the way so all those agencies are very much involved.
Kate Aanenson: And again ultimately you’re going to approve it.
Councilwoman Ryan: Right, right.
Kate Aanenson: So you have to agree to all that so.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay. I just want to emphasize how important this piece of it is from my
perspective to the entirety of this project so it will be something that will be really looking at
closely.
Darren Lazan: Very much understood.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor and council.
47
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Gerhardt.
Todd Gerhardt: I’d just like to add, when they evaluate the environmental area they look at it not
just from the development standpoint but even after the development. The site is definitely
going to be graded and that grading and the development that occurs is it going to enhance the
features in that area or are they going to degrade the features so we had discussions with the
consultant and they said they’re going to go in depth in that analysis and so we don’t move ahead
and try to save something that ultimately will be degraded because of the development too so in
some cases it may even be better to look at improving it elsewhere.
Councilwoman Ryan: So for instance when that, I think on one of the photos it said the wetland
went away. Do they talk about not, you know those type of features as well? That it was
emptied or wasn’t.
Darren Lazan: So oh one of our wetlands?
Councilwoman Ryan: Yes.
Darren Lazan: Sure we have really every possible category of wetland on this project so the one
that went away was a permitted drain of that wetland by the previous owner of the property who
got approval from the Corps to drain that, or from the watershed I guess to drain that component.
He did so. It substantially reduced it’s footprint and now we have gone back out just this fall and
re-mapped what’s left today and it’s a small portion and we’ve included that.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay.
Darren Lazan: So the one that went away was drained by a permit and it’s not, really the, you
know we have components on the north side that were filled with the roadway project and now
what remains is substantially less than what was there prior to the roadway project. We have the
piece you’re talking about. We have several farmed wetlands that are marginal. We have some
in the bluff that are probably a little higher quality and we have big Wetlands 1 and 2 right in the
middle of the site that are of concern and again I didn’t want to drag the whole down on the
discussion tonight but we’re been working on these wetlands this permit for, actively for 2-3
months and last year as well and those primary and secondary impacts are critical to the analysis
and obviously we’re showing a site plan that shows those filled because we believe those
secondary impacts would prevent them from being quality wetlands. So we’ve again this fall
sent out the team back out again to reassess the quality. It’s called a MnRAM. It’s assessment
of the quality of the wetlands. Reassess those just this fall before it froze so we had the most
current information and we’re pouring all that in and we look forward to putting that whole
package together. A complete thought as was mentioned earlier on how we address those
environmental issues.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay, thank you.
48
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Anybody else concerning the AUAR? Would someone like to make a
motion?
Councilwoman Ryan: I’ll make a motion Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilwoman Ryan.
Councilwoman Ryan: I’d like to make the motion that the Chanhassen City Council adopts the
resolution ordering the update to the Alternative Urban Areawide Review for the 2005 MUSA
area and approves professional services agreements with Hoisington-Koegler Group and Kimley-
Horn and Associates.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright we have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilman Campion: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Campion. Any further discussion?
Resolution #2016-85: Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman Campion seconded that
the Chanhassen City Council adopts the resolution ordering the update to the Alternative
Urban Areawide Review for the 2005 MUSA area and approves professional services
agreements with Hoisington-Koegler Group and Kimley-Horn and Associates. All voted in
favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Laufenburger: I would just like to say one thing Darren and Mr. Akradi. I think what
you’re hearing here is we’re excited about what this will bring to the community, especially what
it will bring to the community that’s not already downtown so that’s one of the key factors. Yes
you’re going to have to make some market decisions but we’re excited as is much of the
community. And then lastly I would say there are a lot of people that need to hear more about
this story of Avienda so you’ve got Rotary. You’ve got Lions Club. You’ve got a number of
different organizations. Reach out to them and ask if they would like to hear the story because
there are citizens that would like to know more about what this story is so I would encourage
that, okay? Alright. With that, that concludes our new business.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Laufenburger: Council presentations this evening.
Bahram Akradi: Thank you.
Darren Lazan: Thank you.
49
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much. Council presentations? I just have one. You
maybe were going to say this Mr. Gerhardt. Truth in Taxation. The Truth in Taxation meeting
for citizens, the Truth in Taxation where our finance department presents the results of the
preliminary property tax levy that we made back in September. That will be presented on
th
Monday night, December 5 here in council chambers and there will be opportunity for people
thth
to address the council relative to that information on the 5. And then on the 12 is the,
th
December 12 is when we will actually make the final budget decision and final levy decision.
Also I would like to announce that we have an employee who’s been with us.
Todd Gerhardt: Oh going on 20 years.
Mayor Laufenburger: A member of our engineering organization, specifically the individual
th
who does our GIS is retiring on Wednesday, November 30 and I would like to just make this
proclamation that the City of Chanhassen issues a proclamation celebrating Jolene Devens Day
th
Wednesday, November 30 in recognition of your over 20 years of service to the City of
Chanhassen. Jolene has been an exceptional employee. She’s been the back bone of our GIS for
a number of years and I know that Jolene will be sadly missed but we wish her the best of luck
th
and the best of time in her retirement so officially November 30, Jolene Devens Day here in
Chanhassen.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Laufenburger: Administrative presentations Mr. Gerhardt?
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, City Council members, I had the opportunity, that’s why I was gone. I
was able to give an update to the Chanhassen Lions. I think I’ve been with the City for 30 years
and I don’t think anybody has ever given the Lions an update because it’s usually on a City
Council night so, and I told Mark that it’s about time somebody came over there and gave them
an update so thank you for allowing me to miss a portion of the council meeting. They
appreciated it. It went on for an hour and so I was trying to get a cough drop out of Jerry but he
wouldn’t part with any of them but they’re very appreciative and you know they do so much for
the community from the breakfast. The pancake breakfast with the fire department. They’ve
donated money to the lights out at Lake Ann. Numerous benches and they’re working on a
lion’s head fountain out at Lake Ann that will be entertaining for the kids to stick their head in a
lion’s mouth to get a drink and, but one of their big events is also the summer picnic for the
senior group and as I was presenting they had questions and one of them is what else can we do
for the City and I said well I know how much the organizations give back to the community and
I said just don’t burn your group out. Just stay active in what you’re doing. We really appreciate
it and you know reach out and be supportive to other organizations in the community so I
thanked them on behalf of the council and department heads so it was a good group. Well
received.
50
Chanhassen City Council – November 28, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Very good. And they also have the Christmas Tree lot right adjacent to
Cub Foods.
Todd Gerhardt: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: I think they go through about 600 trees a year which is just amazing so if
you haven’t gotten your tree yet please head over to the Lions Club Christmas Tree lot right
there on Market Boulevard.
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
None.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay just a reminder that the council will adjourn to executive session in
the Fountain Conference Room immediately following the council meeting to consider the City
Manager’s Annual Evaluation. Is there a motion to adjourn?
Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the meeting. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council
meeting was adjourned at 9:45 pm.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
51